Saturday, July 10, 2010

While surfing Etsy for hidden treasures, I typed in 'fairy' and dug through 20+ pages. Amid all the baby tutus and charm bracelets, I discovered this absolute wonder of a dollhouse in a shop called 'Sunflowerhouse'. I was in awe and keep looking at the pictures... the artist Debbie Schramer likes to go on nature walks and collect treasures with her husband Mike, who is also an artist. They have over the years collected a huge amount of drift wood and other earthly treasures. With all of this, they went to work building two of the most magnifiscent dollhouses I've ever seen. Although they are built in the spirit of the now popular organic 'fairy homes', these two pieces are much grander in scale and design. These are truly fairy castles and mansions!

THE FAIRY TREEHOUSEAbout their Fairy Treehouse, Debbie writes:"This is the most amazing, magical, intricate work of art. My husband and I created this house in 1995 when we lived in Washington state. We always have loved going for walks in the mountains and by the sea and have collected so many incredible materials in nature over the years. We've always wanted to build our own very different, unique house (to actually live in) so I think we put many of our dreams and ideas into this house (the first fairy house we made).

This house is 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It has 14 rooms (all completely furnished with little chairs, beds, tables, etc., dishes, books, sculptures, paintings, brooms, shoes, etc., also made from nature). We have used everything in nature you can imagine.....driftwood, branches, roots, vines, twigs, leaves, moss, flowers, stones, shells, seaweed, kelp, leaf skeleton, wild grasses, herbs, pods, the list goes on. We gathered nearly all of the materials we've used in the house as well.

It took us 6 months to make this house; towards the end of creating it, we worked 12 hour days quite often. Our Fairy Treehouse was exhibited at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland in 1995 for a year and was chosen the 4th favorite work of art out of the 400 artworks in the museum's inagural exhibit.

There is an observatory at the very top with telescopes, a sculpturing table and clay, pots to plant flowers, and little chairs. There are stairways that wander all throughout the fairy treehouse; there are nearly hidden little rooms, balconies, windowboxes, sleeping hollows, garden rooms, little ladders leading to separate little overhanging rooms and just endless, amazing detail that captivates a person for hours... Endless surprises everywhere"Additional pictures and purchase details available on Etsy at:http://www.etsy.com/listing/51064598/the-fairy-treehouse

THE FAIRY CASTLEDebbie says about the castle, "My husband and I made this fairy castle 6 years ago. It is made from all natural materials.....driftwood, branches, vines, twigs, leaves, moss, shells, stones, leaf skeleton, flowers, pods and just really everything in nature. We gathered nearly all of the materials ourselves. It is 2 1/2 feet tall; there are wonderful stairways waundering all throughout the house that lead one on a magical journey to fairyland. Your imagination goes wild. Even after seeing this house millions of times, I never tire of spending time looking at it. It is truely amazing. There are little bedrooms with beds made from flowers and leaves, a living room with shelves of books, a chess set and little twig chairs. There is an art tower with a painting and sculpting studio and an art library. There's even a mud room with a sink and pots for planting little flowers. There's a bathroon, nearly hidden behind shelves of lotion bottles and perfumes. My favorite area though is the laundry room with it's ironing board and iron made form stems and pods. There's even a little wash tub and a package of (fairy) soap. A little mailbox is filled with letters and a newspaper. And there are three towers made of stones at the top of the fairy castle. One of the towers is atop a little hermitage cottage; one can barely see in through the door to the tiny furniture inside. There are tiny dishes, paintings, sculptures and other amazing detail, all created from nature"Additional photos and retail details are available in their Etsy shop at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/51061672/the-fairy-castle?ref=v1_other_2